Prevalences of non-infective bowel diseases are very low in South African urban blacks compared with the white population. In seeking elucidation, using breath hydrogen measurements in series of black and white subjects, small-bowel transit time was determined, and the malabsorption of maize, wheat, and rice investigated. Median transit times in both ethnic groups were similar. Rice was fully, but wheat incompletely absorbed by both groups. Maize, the staple food of blacks, was incompletely absorbed by them, although completely absorbed by the white subjects. Carbohydrate consumption is high in the black population (60-65% of total energy intake). It is probable that in blacks, despite their now eating a low-fibre diet, an expected increase in large-bowel diseases has been inhibited in part by the protective mechanism of fermentation of malabsorbed maize and wheat.